Francis Xavier Suarez is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the 43rd mayor of Miami since 2017.
81 Facts About Francis Suarez
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Francis Suarez was first elected to represent the 4th district in the Miami City Commission in 2009 and was reelected in 2011 and 2015.
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Francis Suarez served until 2017 when he was elected mayor of Miami.
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Francis Suarez was a candidate in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries, but withdrew from the race after he failed to qualify for the first primary debate.
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On July 1,2023, due to his ongoing presidential candidacy, Francis Suarez went on unpaid leave from the firm.
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In 1998, the elder Francis Suarez was removed from Miami's mayoral office by the Florida circuit court.
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Francis Suarez cited a home burglary that he had suffered as his motivation for getting involved.
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Francis Suarez was first elected to the Miami City Commission's District 4 seat in 2009.
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Francis Suarez was reelected unopposed in both 2011 and 2015.
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Francis Suarez was an advocate for changes that were made to the zoning code of the city aimed at easing the ability to construct affordable housing.
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In late 2011, Regaldo asked Francis Suarez to hold the chairmanship of the City Commission.
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However, in mid-2012 Francis Suarez became critical of Regaldo's leadership, attacking high turnover among Regaldo's staff and questioning the finance department's ability to balance the city's budget on time.
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Francis Suarez even came to criticize Regaldo's feud with former police chief Exposito.
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Francis Suarez ultimately announced a campaign to unseat Regaldo in the 2013 mayoral election.
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Francis Suarez was an opponent of red light cameras in the city, which had become a controversial issue in Miami.
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Francis Suarez was widely anticipated to challenge incumbent Miami mayor Tomas Regaldo in the November 2013 mayoral election.
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On January 15,2013, Francis Suarez officially announced his candidacy in a press conference he held outside of his personal resident in the Coral Gate neighborhood.
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Francis Suarez's father attended the press conference and supported Francis Suarez's candidacy.
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Francis Suarez stated that, if elected, he would provide the city with "forward-thinking and innovative" governance.
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Francis Suarez declared his campaign platform would focus on increasing the city's emergency financial reserves, helping small businesses, strengthen the city's police department, and elevating the city's national prominence.
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Francis Suarez's age was seen as a likely liability to his candidacy, opening him up to accusations of inexperience.
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Francis Suarez's candidacy garnered the support of fellow Miami city commissioners Marc Sarnon, Michelle Spence-Jones, and Willy Gort.
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Francis Suarez's candidacy was rocked by controversies regarding the conduct of staffers.
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Francis Suarez's father was accused of possibly attempting to influence a witness in the investigations when he reached out by email one of the voters for whom a ballot request had been illegally submitted.
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In ending his candidacy, Francis Suarez cited several factors including "mistakes" made by his campaign team.
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Francis Suarez was elected mayor of Miami in the 2017 election.
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Francis Suarez is the first mayor to not be born in Cuba since 1996, when mayor Stephen P Clark died in office.
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In June 2020, Francis Suarez was elected by American mayors to serve as the second vice president of the United States Conference of Mayors and in June 2021, he was elected as the first vice president of the organization.
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Francis Suarez was included in Fortune magazine's 2021 list of the "World's 50 Greatest Leaders".
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Francis Suarez played an important role in securing narrow city commission passage of approval for Miami Freedom Park and its related urban development project.
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Francis Suarez touted this as streamlining the ability for businesses to get needed permits.
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Francis Suarez proposed eStart in 2019, and it was launched in January 2021.
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Francis Suarez acknowledges that rising sea levels resulting from climate change pose a challenge for Miami.
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In February 2019 Francis Suarez wrote an article with former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon on how Miami is defending itself from the effects of climate change.
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In November 2019 the Miami City Commission unanimously adopted a resolution submitted by Francis Suarez amounting to a climate emergency declaration for Miami.
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Francis Suarez pledged to spend funds raised from the Miami Forever Bond to address climate matters and to pursue additional state and federal funding.
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Francis Suarez has advertised Miami as being an ascendant low-tax business haven akin to Switzerland, Monaco, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh and Doha.
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Francis Suarez has dubbed Miami the "capital of capital".
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Francis Suarez has promoted the city of Miami to investors as being a profitable location for tech and finance firms to locate their offices.
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Francis Suarez attracted national headlines by replying on Twitter to posts in which California-based technology company executives complained about their dissatisfaction with California's state government.
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Francis Suarez has laid some credit for Florida's growth on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act's capping of the state and local tax deduction making Florida a more attractive state for Americans to live in than states with higher state and local taxes.
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Francis Suarez is a cryptocurrency-friendly politician, who has promoted the development of Miami as a cryptocurrency hub.
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Francis Suarez intends for Miami to be the next Silicon Valley Suarez has to draw cryptocurrency capital to the city, believing that a strong embrace of crpytocurrency would modernize the city's economy and better position it for e-business.
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Francis Suarez made an effort to persuade the organizers of cryptocurrency conferences to host their events in Miami.
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Francis Suarez supported plans FTX had before its collapse made to move its headquarters to Miami.
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In September 2021, Francis Suarez revealed that his ultimate plan for the city of Miami is to abolish taxes.
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Francis Suarez stated that Miami is looking to allow its residents to be paid in Bitcoin, and to be able to pay their taxes using Bitcoin.
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In November 2021, Francis Suarez became the first US politician to take their salary in cryptocurrency.
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Francis Suarez continued to tout the money earned from MiamiCoin, and maintained his support for cryptocurrency.
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Francis Suarez was supportive of the bid, believing that it would bring money into the city, remarking.
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Francis Suarez has been regularly absent from meetings of the regional transit boards, and has contributed little of note in his position on the board.
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In July 2024, while attending a meeting where the board board was scheduled to hold a vote on adopting a new five-year improvement plan, Francis Suarez publicly castigated the board as having been inadequate at improving transit.
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Francis Suarez criticized the $680 million financing proposed for specific projects at Miami International Airport as too little money and not doing enough to improve the airport.
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At July 2024 meeting, Francis Suarez sought to justify his regular absences from the board's meetings, remarking,.
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Francis Suarez further criticize the board as doing too little to explore new technologies, remarking,.
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On March 2,2020, Francis Suarez responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by announcing preparations for a potential outbreak in Miami.
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On March 4,2020, Francis Suarez announced plans to cancel the upcoming Ultra Music Festival, stating that the tourists attending would greatly enhance the likelihood of Miami having cases of COVID-19.
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Francis Suarez contracted the virus, which he confirmed during an interview with the Miami Herald on March 13,2020.
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Francis Suarez was the second person confirmed to be infected in Miami-Dade County.
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Francis Suarez began posting daily video diaries to Instagram, showing the progression of his COVID-19 infection.
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In July 2020, Francis Suarez dedicated 39 police officers to the task of enforcing a Miami-wide mask-wearing ordinance.
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Francis Suarez voted for DeSantis in the 2022 gubernatorial election.
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Francis Suarez did not vote for Republican Donald Trump in either the 2016 or 2020 United States presidential elections; he wrote in Marco Rubio and Mike Pence instead.
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Francis Suarez is a significant figure in Florida politics, and has sought to build himself a higher national national profile.
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On September 28,2023, an investigation was opened by the Florida Ethics Commission after reports surfaced that Francis Suarez did not disclose travel "gifts" worth well over $100.
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Francis Suarez claims to have repaid all the expenses of these "gifts" with the latter purportedly coming from David Beckham, who Francis Suarez was seen with in his luxury box at the World Cup, and who is a registered lobbyist for Miami Freedom Park, a new MLS stadium development to be built on city-owned land.
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The ethics probe was initiated after a complaint was filed by local Democratic activist Thomas Kennedy, who alleged that Francis Suarez violated state ethics statute.
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Francis Suarez has faced allegations of potential impropriety in relation to this $10,000 per month in compensation for consulting services, received from a property developer who does business in the city.
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Francis Suarez has publicly denied that this work presented any conflict of interest.
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On July 5,2023, a super PAC supporting Francis Suarez launched a chatbot that uses his face and voice to answer questions about his campaign.
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Francis Suarez himself argued that the polling requirement was unfair for "relatively unknown" figures such as himself who are competing against candidates who have been national figures for years.
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Francis Suarez would stay true to his promise and suspended his campaign on August 29,2023, becoming the first in the 2024 race to drop out.
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Francis Suarez expressed his interest in being Trump's running mate after himself withdrawing from the race for the Republican nomination.
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Francis Suarez has expressed interest in running for governor in 2026.
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However, Francis Suarez has criticized climate activists for being alarmist about the impacts that they expect climate change will have on Miami.
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Francis Suarez supported the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act as originally signed, which prohibited some classroom instruction on LGBT issues from kindergarten through third grade.
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In 2020, Francis Suarez approved of Miami offering certification for businesses by the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce making Miami the largest city in Florida to do so.
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Francis Suarez signed an LGBTQ Ordinance recognizing the contributions of LGBTQ people to the City of Miami.
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Francis Suarez announced that he supports a nationwide ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
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Francis Suarez noted that without birthright citizenship he would have lacked American citizenship.
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Francis Suarez argued that refugees from Venezuela should be granted temporary protected status in the US.